The camera is a 2 megapixel one with a 2.5x digital zoom and landscape orientation. It is put into operation from either the side button or the menu and is ready to take pictures within a second.

The camera control in K510 model is carried out through tabs, whereas we observe that in K530 it is the same as the control in the Cyber-Shot models of Sony Ericsson, that is, by a horizontal menu.

In photographing mode, information about the current settings is displayed on the screen and “1”, “4”, and “7” buttons are also available as shortcuts to the most common modes. Pressing “0” activates a help menu, which indicates the function of each shortcut button.

Pictures, taken at strong light in the open, look well despite the slight blurring. At week light, the lack of a flash predetermines the unsatisfactory result. A somewhat compensating feature is the “night” mode, but it will not be of much help when the light grows very weak.

Outside Pictures

The unavailability of a “macro” mode is an easily detectable hindrance to taking photos from a short distance; as a consequence of this the images are unfocused and in reality – rendered unusable. In case you try photographing a small-font text from a book or a magazine, it will not be actually readable afterwards.

Strong Light

Medium Light

Low Light

Macro

Shooting videos relies on the same low resolution as that of the old SE (176 x 144); so low, in fact, that the films will be usable for MMS only. Their quality depends mostly on light: for best results one should make videos either in the open or in a very well illuminated room. Duration is only limited by memory availability.

Media Players:

The music player is a standard one, using a manual equalizer setting or several pre-set profiles (normal, bass, voice, and treble boost), as well as loop and shuffle play mode. While listening to music (MP3 and AAC formats supported), one can make use of the other functions by simply minimizing the player.

For much more enjoyment while listening to music, Sony Ericsson K530 also features A2DP. This enables the usage of stereo Bluetooth headphones, thus eliminating the irritating entanglement in the standard headphones wiring.

The phone also disposes of an RDS radio, capable of storing up to 20 radio stations, either manually or automatically. However, if you wish to listen to the radio, plugging the “cable” headphones will be indispensable – in this case they serve as an aerial.

The video player supports the following formats: MPEG-4, H.263, and WMV. It also features video clip viewing on landscape-oriented full screen. We tested the player and see that it doesn’t have any problem with MP4 H.263 video.

Software:

If you do not know the name of a song that is being performed, the Track ID function can be of help. This is a service for music recognition, which records a fragment from the piece of music, sends it over the Internet, and then feeds back information about the artist, song, and album. We have been delighted and fascinated by the excellent performance of the Track ID: it coped with identifying all the songs we included in the test.

The phone comes with a preinstalled two web based application, called AccuWeather, providing information and weather forecast after connecting to the Internet, and with Audible you can download spoken audio entertainment, information, or educational programming . For your spare time you have two preinstalled games at your disposal.One is the familiar tennis, named here “Tennis Multiplay”. It enables the user to play in a network with friends via the Bluetooth. As with computer games, one can either host the game or join it. By contrast with the sports simulator, the other game is rather different: it is called “Investigators” and the action takes place in an office. Proceeding in the game is done through making conversations with different people and interacting with the environment. For instance, you can open the computer case and take out the hard disk drive.

Of course, one can always complement this software with favorite games or programs thanks to the Java MIDP 2.0 support.

3 Comments

Display mode:

1.Marc (unregistered)

This phone have all that the majority people needs. Think it! For what more?
I have this phone and it's perfect because it have This phone have all that the majority people needs. Think it! For what more?
I have this phone and it's perfect. Ok, ok... the camera isn't the best but this mobile can be 9 days ON!
Regards!
Marc Stern
Barcelona. Spain

All content (phone reviews, news, specs, info), design and layouts are Copyright 2001-2015 phoneArena.com. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part or in any form or medium without written permission is prohibited! Privacy . Terms of use . Cookies . Team